Almost all aircraft have exterior lighting. Exterior lighting serves a plurality of purposes. While some exterior aircraft lights provide active visibility, i.e. they allow for the pilots and the crew to examine the aircraft environment, other exterior aircraft lights provide for passive visibility, i.e. they make the aircraft visible to others, particularly in the dark.
A particular kind of exterior aircraft lights are so-called navigation lights, sometimes also referred to as position lights. In accordance with regulatory requirements and/or industry standards, such as the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR), aircraft are equipped with a plurality of such navigation lights, with each of the navigation lights, depending on the position on the aircraft, emitting one of red light, white light, and green light. In this way, observers of the aircraft can deduce a direction of travel from the color of the navigation light that is visible from the viewing direction of the observer. However, for aircraft that are capable of flying not only forward, but in a plurality of different directions, such as for example helicopters, the light emitted by the navigation lights may convey misleading information to the observer.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide an exterior aircraft navigation light that has improved capabilities of conveying navigation information.